Jennifer Golick, a top psychologist at the Pathway Home who was killed on Friday, had recently ordered Wong removed from the program.
A gunman who killed three hostages before committing suicide at the country’s largest veterans home on Friday was a decorated soldier who had been kicked out of a treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a relative of one victim.
Former Army infantryman Albert Wong, 36, was armed with a rifle when he slipped into the Pathway Home at the Veterans Home of California shortly before 10:30 a.m.
The former patient took the program’s executive director Christine Loeber, clinical director Jennifer Golick, and psychologist Jennifer Gonzalez hostage while the veterans home was placed on lockdown.
Authorities were unable to contact Wong throughout the day, and when a tactical team finally entered the building at 6 p.m. local time, the gunman and his three victims were dead inside.
Gonzalez was a 29-year-old clinical psychologist, while Loeber, 48, was an executive director who received her graduate degree in social work from Boston College in 2008, according to her LinkedIn page.
Jennifer Golick, a top psychologist at the Pathway Home, last spoke to her husband Mark at around 10:30 am, when she called him to say she had been taken hostage by the former soldier.
She had recently ordered Wong removed from the program, which treats combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, her father-in-law Bob Golick said.
It remains unclear how long Wong was enrolled in the program and why he was kicked out.
Wong had been an Army infantryman who served a year in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. He was also previously stationed at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, according to Mercury News.
Wong also received a number of service awards, including one for expert marksmanship with a rifle.
According to public records, Wong held licenses as a private investigator, firearms trainer and security guard.
He also had two firearms licenses, although one expired in 2010, and the second was valid until October 2017.
With News Wire Services
